In a restored courtyard residence, nestled amid 600-year-old hutong alleyways in Beijing’s Caochang neighbourhood, diners dip porcelain spoons into steaming bowls of double-boiled black Silkie chicken, conpoy and bamboo-pith soup. Overseen by celebrity culinarian Huang Jinghui, better known as chef Fei, Yan Garden also serves sweet red-bean soup lifted by aged tangerine peel, succulent char siu and deep-fried pigeon, its paper-thin skin glossy and taut.

Set amid the sea of softly curved, ash-grey rooftops and maze of walls of the Mandarin Oriental Qianmen, Beijing, Yan Garden may be thousands of kilometres from the homeland of the cuisines in which it specialises, but the scents, flavours and textures of its dishes evoke the lushness and humidity of southern China. Few people would be surprised to find classic Cantonese fare in the centuries-old streets of northern China – the cuisine is, surely, almost everywhere.

Look through the Michelin and Black Pearl Restaurant guides and it is striking how the gastronomy of the old coastal province of Canton – today’s Guangdong – dominates. In Beijing, seven of 32 Michelin-star restaurants focus on Cantonese cuisine. In Shanghai, 15 of 50.

According to chefs and Chinese-food experts, there are past and present reasons for its prominence – and opinion is divided on its future status. Cantonese cuisine’s legacy of being the most well-known Chinese regional food can be traced back to the waves of emigrants who took their food culture from southern China to Southeast Asia and the West, a centuries-long migration.

“Hong Kong didn’t experience the Cultural Revolution and the other turbulent events of mainland China in the second half of the 20th century, so their Cantonese cuisine flourished, unhindered by all this historical mayhem,” says British writer, author and cook Fuchsia Dunlop, an authority on Chinese food. “A lot of people think that, during this period, the best Cantonese food was to be found in Hong Kong. These days, Hong Kong is still a centre for Cantonese gastronomic excellence, but the mainland has caught up, with many Hongkongers now popping over to Shenzhen to eat food of a very high quality that is less expensive than at home.”

With its special economic zones, Canton was the first region in China to become wealthy, colouring people’s perception of the cuisine. “In the 1990s, if you wanted to go for an extravagant meal, even in Sichuan, you would go to a Cantonese restaurant with live seafood – it signified spending a lot of money and giving face,” says Dunlop. A “snobbery” about fiery food, the stereotype being that lots of spice is added “when you don’t have great ingredients and you’re just trying to [send the rice down]”, also made Cantonese gastronomy prestigious.

Spicy food, such as that from Sichuan, and the folk cooking of Hunan and Guizhou provinces, may be popular, but traditionally high-ranking cuisines are delicate. “Cuisines such as Cantonese and Jiangnan have an emphasis on incredibly fresh, seasonal ingredients and not using too many seasonings; the whole point of the cooking is to show off your great ingredients,” she says.

Chef and restaurateur Du Jianqing, of the Amazing Chinese Cuisine (Jing Xi Hui) restaurants in Shanghai – the Changning original of which has two Michelin stars, while the branch on the Bund has three Black Pearl diamonds – agrees, adding that Cantonese cuisine has always carried the potential for broad appeal.

“Whether among the elderly, children, or people from diverse backgrounds, this light, fresh and ingredient-focused style of dining is universally well accepted,” he says.

In 2024, he opened Selection by Du, with executive chef Chen Shaoxiong at the helm, as a “modern Chinese family banquet” and a “dialogue with the international market”. It involves a multi-course set menu accompanied by wine and tea, and what Du calls “East-meets-West post-meal experiences”, including petit fours and a souvenir. While still very much haute cuisine, the restaurant itself has a relatively relaxed atmosphere.

Du hails from Puning, in Guangdong’s Chaoshan region, and specialises in the cuisine of his home, known for its braised goose, beef hotpot and raw-marinated seafood. Some argue that Chiuchow is separate from Cantonese fare, while others see it as a subcategory of the cuisine. Either way, Du attributes Cantonese cuisine’s success to the replicability of its fundamental precepts.

“Its respect for ingredients, pursuit of original flavours and high standards for basic techniques – such as heat control, broths and knife skills – show exceptional stability,” he says. But while sophisticated cooking processes are the cuisine’s backbone, it is also versatile.

“Cantonese cuisine has a strong tradition but remains highly adaptable, allowing chefs to innovate while retaining its identity. I believe this combination of culinary depth, adaptability and international recognition has contributed to its strong presence in today’s fine-dining landscape,” says Chaoshan-born Fei, who also oversees, along with Yan Garden, two-Michelin-star restaurants in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, a newly starred spot in Singapore and a Bangkok outpost, all in partnership with Mandarin Oriental. Singaporean group Imperial Treasure runs more than 20 – mainly Cantonese – restaurants around the world, including Michelin-star spots in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

CEO Kenny Leung Tak-shun says that, while the fundamentals of Cantonese cooking remain the same – an “emphasis on fresh ingredients, balance, texture, timing and technique” – his chefs adjust the ingredients, seasoning and portion sizes according to the market. “Availability, seasonality and quality of certain ingredients can vary significantly between Shanghai and the Greater Bay Area,” he says.

“Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta have a wider, more immediate supply of southern Chinese vegetables and produce. Naturally, this has an impact on what we put on the menu.

“This is an important part of authentic Cantonese cooking. Authenticity doesn’t mean using the same ingredients in every city. It means applying the same philosophy, sourcing the best ingredients and allowing them to speak for themselves.”Cantonese cuisine’s adaptability is taken to bold heights by the trio of chefs behind one of the most in-demand restaurants in Shanghai. Fabula – just six seats in an attic above a wine bar – was opened in August 2025 by Zee Zheng Yunze and Ricky Deng Yongjun, both formerly of Taian Table in Shanghai, and Charles Tan, an alumnus of Hong Kong’s Amber. Although primarily Western, the restaurant’s dishes incorporate the culinary heritage of all three chefs: Zheng is from Ningbo, in Zhejiang province; Deng from Shanghai; and Tan from Foshan, in Guangdong province.

Cantonese air-dried lap cheong inspired the trio’s pigeon-blood sausage, bulked up with Ningbo-inspired rice cake, with hints of rose-fragranced and soy sauce. Elsewhere, they draw on the legacy of rice-less congee, famous in Guangdong’s Shunde district, by making a soup infused with matsutake mushrooms diced finely to resemble rice grains. Referencing the Cantonese technique of flash-frying fish with hot oil, they then pour the soup over raw botan ebi in front of guests. Cantonese ingredients are used instead of Western ones in some dishes.

“Instead of asparagus, for example, we use choi sum that’s grown in Guangzhou, known as ‘late-harvest choi sum’, that reaches over a metre tall,” says Zheng. “It’s not a very regular variant, and only available for a short season.”Deng points out that the structure of the Cantonese kitchen, with its clearly defined stations – for making dim sum, roasting meats and wok-cooking – also makes it easily translatable into different contexts. “It’s more like the French system, where they have stations, so it’s easier for Cantonese chefs and restaurateurs to move to different cities and copy what they do back home,” he says.

For these young chefs, the lengths that Cantonese cuisine has travelled are not just measured in physical distance. In Tan’s case, cooking more than 1,000km from where he spent his childhood, Shanghai has an openness to the new while the Cantonese tend to be “more rigid about tradition”.

Hong Kong has long had progressive gastronomes expanding the boundaries of Cantonese fare, and Chinese cuisine more generally, but Shanghai chefs see the southern city as the place where tradition is honoured.

“Shanghai gathers talent, ingredients and cultures from across the country and the world, offering chefs space to experiment,” says Du. “Hong Kong excels at preserving traditions, Shanghai excels at driving evolution; these two cities form the most significant facets of high-end Cantonese and Chiuchow cuisine today.”

Cantonese restaurants face increasing pressure across China, however. A growing number of new openings are serving regional cuisines such as Jiangnan or Sichuan, for example, with Michelin, Black Pearl and the 50 Best rankings firmly in their sights. Despite the challenges and competition, Cantonese chefs remain positive.

“As living standards improve, diners are paying more attention to the quality of ingredients, flavours and the overall dining experience. At the same time, both Cantonese and Chiuchow cuisine continue to evolve, finding new ways to express their traditions,” says Fei. “I believe this balance between tradition and innovation gives them strong potential for continued growth.”